meet the beeple: rani kubersky
Holton Carner · Sep 25, 2024
The team here at beeps has come a long way in reimagining on-call. Our goal of creating a modern on-call platform wouldn’t be possible without the amazing engineers that are working behind the scenes to perfect our product. While our mission is underway, we wanted to take some time to highlight the individuals that are building beeps from the ground up.
Introducing Rani:
I’m the chief of staff at beeps! I grew up in White Plains, New York (a suburb north of New York City). Something that comes up less in professional settings is that I’m from a small community of Indian Jews called the Bene Israel –there are only ~70,000 of us worldwide. As a foodie, I love keeping the tradition alive by cooking the foods that I grew up with and eating all the Indian food that I can find in NYC (the best stuff is in Queens).
How did you get started in your field?
It happened serendipitously. I landed an MBA internship my first year of business school and was assigned to a newly formed infrastructure and developer tools team. At first, I felt out of my depth but discovered that with effort and patience, I could hold my own and even thrive. I’ve spent the last three years in this space. While I appreciate the intellectual challenge that comes with this work, what I've enjoyed most are the incredible people I've met along the way.
Why beeps?
In my last role, the emphasis was on thematic investing. To get deals done, we needed to publish a perspective on a market. Some of this was simple desk research (reading articles on hacker news or tech engineering blogs), but we were also encouraged to connect with founders, engineering leaders, potential customers, and experts in various fields to identify trends. Joey (founder of beeps) was someone that I regularly turned to for his expert opinion and nuggets of wisdom. Our conversations gave me the conviction that on-call was a large and growing market. I also felt that if I ever made the leap into operating, he’d be someone that I wanted to work for.
Several months later, our timings finally aligned. As I met more members of the team, the decision became obvious. In venture, you have a portfolio of bets and only need one or two winners to generate returns. As a startup employee, the stakes are higher. You have one bet. You can have the right team in place but if the market is wrong, it will never work (and vice versa). As I considered shifting into operating and making my one bet, beeps felt like the natural choice: right market, right team.
What’s your favorite part about working on a remote team?
I love working on a distributed team. It gives me exposure to folks from different cultures and backgrounds!
What's one technology trend that really excites you?
I’m excited about the transformative potential of AI in improving accessibility. Recently, OpenAI highlighted Be My Eyes, a non-profit organization that creates technology to assist people who are blind or have low vision with everyday tasks. Their latest innovation, the Be My Eyes Virtual Volunteer, is powered by GPT-4o, and its impact on visual interpretation needs is truly profound. I’ve also admired the work that companies like Stark, Nagish, and TestParty are doing in the accessibility space.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received? How did it impact your life?
One of my lifelong passions, aside from startups, is voice. I started singing opera at 13 and instantly fell in love. In high school, I attended opera camp (yes, that exists!), where I was surrounded by world-class coaches and singers. It was intimidating, especially during masterclasses where we performed in front of everyone and received public feedback from the program's tough head. At 16, her criticism often felt like a gut punch, leading me to doubt my talent and potential.
However, she also offered a perspective that changed everything. She emphasized that opera singers have tremendous capacity for growth and that voices can change dramatically with training and commitment – even in a short time. She encouraged us not to judge our voices as they were but to envision their potential.
This advice reframed my negative self-talk and has stuck with me ever since. It reminds me that with hard work and the right support, I’m capable of a lot. And that I should keep going when I fail. Over the years, I’ve extended this advice to my career and have taken on new challenges like co-founding a syndicate community, becoming an investor in technical businesses despite not having a traditional technical background, and now taking on a chief of staff role at beeps. I’m excited for what’s ahead and confident that these learnings will continue to guide me.